For Commercial Ratings – Specific is Better than Average

February 13, 2014

By Bill Duggan, Group EVP, ANA

Both Kantar Media and Rentrak conducted analyses that provide individual ratings of the Super Bowl commercials. Kantar Media’s commercial tuning index (CTI) compares each commercial rating to the game average to produce an index indicating its relative value. Rentrak's Ad Retention Index looks at the second-by-second viewing average for commercials compared to the entire program.

According to both Kantar Media and Rentrak, the most-watched ads each had a 104 index compared to the average ratings of the entire game. The least watched ads had an index of 91, according to Rentrak and “less than 95” per Kantar. For the Super Bowl, the commercial rating depends a great part on where in the program it airs. The gap between a 91 and 104 index is indeed big and shows the value of specific commercial ratings versus average commercial ratings.

ANA continues to advocate for increased granularity of commercial ratings, and notably for brand-specific commercial ratings. We’ve conducted surveys (82 percent of members expressed interest – a landslide!), written white papers, and convened industry meetings. Last year, both Kantar Media and Rentrak participated in the ANA Commercial Ratings Summit to discuss solutions that could help facilitate the availability of brand-specific commercial ratings for television. An output of the summit was the paper, “Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings: Benefits and Solution Providers."

Thanks to Kantar Media and Rentrak for continuing the conversation and showcasing the value of brand-specific commercial ratings.